Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

The first of these factors is the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before. Most of the surface of the earth has now been explored and men now turn to the exploration of outer space as their next objective.[2]

Following an early expedition to Newfoundland, Captain James Cook declared that he intended to go not only "... farther than any man has been before me, but as far as I think it is possible for a man to go"[3] (emphasis added). Cook's most famous ship, the Endeavour, lent its name to the last-produced of the space shuttles, much as the Star Trekstarship Enterprise lent its name to the program's test craft.

At length, sick with longing for those glittering sunset streets and cryptical hill lanes among ancient tiled roofs, nor able sleeping or waking to drive them from his mind, Carter resolved to go with bold entreaty whither no man had gone before, and dare the icy deserts through the dark to where unknown Kadath, veiled in cloud and crowned with unimagined stars, holds secret and nocturnal the onyx castle of the Great Ones.[4]

On this site, a powerful engine will be built. An engine that will someday help us to travel a hundred times faster than we can today. Imagine it – thousands of inhabited planets at our fingertips... and we'll be able to explore those strange new worlds, and seek out new life and new civilizations. This engine will let us go boldly... where no man has gone before.

The phrase was first introduced into Star Trek by Samuel Peeples, who is attributed with suggesting it be used as an episode name.[5][6] The episode became "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the second pilot of Star Trek. The phrase itself was subsequently worked into the show's opening narration, which was written after the episode. Indeed, the introductory sequence was devised in August 1966, after several episodes had been filmed, and shortly before the series was due to debut. It is the result of the combined input of several people, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and producers John D. F. Black and Bob Justman.[7] Roddenberry's original narrative is as follows:

This is the adventure of the United Space Ship Enterprise. Assigned a five year galaxy patrol, the bold crew of the giant starship explores the excitement of strange new worlds, uncharted civilizations, and exotic people. These are its voyages and its adventures.

Under their influence, the above narrative quote went through several revisions before being selected for use in the TV series.[citation needed]

The words "no one" were substituted for the original sequence's "no man" in the conclusion of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as a gender-neutral and race-neutral quote in conjunction to the peace treaty between the Klingons and Federation at the end of the movie. This alternate wording had already been in use in the introductory sequence for Star Trek: The Next Generation, now narrated by Patrick Stewart:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

The quote was used in the 2009 Star Trek reboot film series, at the end of each film. In the 2009 film reboot of Star Trek', the word "ongoing" is used in place of "continuing". The quote is spoken by Spock Prime in Star Trek, Kirk inStar Trek Into Darknessand by Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Bones, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura in Star Trek Beyond; the latter used the same monologue used for The Next Generation.

The quotation has also gained popularity outside Star Trek. In 1989, NASA used the phrase to title its retrospective of Project Apollo: Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions.[8]

The phrase was referred to sarcastically on the retail box of the 1987 computer game Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter as "His mission: to scrub dirty decks...to replace burned-out lightbulbs...TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN HAS SWEPT THE FLOOR!" (emphasis original)[11] and similarly in 1992 regarding Apple'sSystem 7 (code named "Star Trek") which was planned to run on Intel x86 processors by calling it "the OS that boldly goes where everyone else has been".[12] Likewise on Babylon 5, Ivanova implies that a woman is promiscuous by telling the captain, "Good luck, Captain. I think you're about to go where... everyone has gone before."[13]